Movie Review: Kubo and the Two Strings

Movie Review: Kubo and the Two Strings                                                                                 8-20-16

Kubo and the Two Strings is a stop-motion animated film produced by Laika. Laika is an Oregon-based animation studio (though I happen to be a Bay-Stater) that specializes in stop-motion animation, and their movies include Coraline (2009), Paranorman (2012), and The Boxtrolls (2014), all three of which got nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. I personally find it absurd that Boxtrolls got nominated for that Oscar because I personally found it to be an Aardman wannabe. I would've nominated either The Book of Life or The LEGO Movie instead that year.

The story of this movie is about a Japanese boy named Kubo, who wields a magic guitar that can control paper. When the ghosts of his aunts attack a local village, Kubo gets rescued by a stubborn snow monkey and finds himself in a cave on top of a snowy mountain. Now Kubo must embark on a quest with the monkey, along with a humanoid samurai beetle, to find magic gear to defeat his evil uncle the Moon King.

Now what do I think of the film? To my surprise, I enjoyed it! The animation is very fluid, the story is very original, and I found the samurai beetle to be likable and funny. HOWEVER, I do have a warning: This movie is not aimed at single-digit kids. There is a lot of action and characters being fatally injured.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.